New Releases
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March 13, 2020Sam Gendel's Nonesuch debut album, Satin Doll, is a futuristic homage to historical jazz. Three musicians—Gendel on saxophone and other things, Gabe Noel on electric bass, and Philippe Melanson on electronic percussion—engage in simultaneous synchronized sonic construction/deconstruction of well-known jazz standards, including Miles Davis's "Freddie Freeloader," Charles Mingus's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll." Pre-order to download the album track "Afro Blue" now.
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Rachael & Vilray—the debut album by Lake Street Dive singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray—features ten original songs by Vilray, plus two covers from the era that inspired him: Cuban composer Pedro Junco Jr.'s 1943 "Nosotros" and Drake/Atler's "I Love the Way You're Breaking My Heart," first popularized by Peggy Lee. "The voices of acoustic duo Rachael & Vilray are magical enough on their own," says Chronogram, "but when they blend in song the results are utterly sublime."
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Maria is Portuguese fado singer Carminho's most personal album. Its title is her given first name and a name in Portugal that's both traditional and a popular choice among contemporary young parents, as fado is both part of a tradition and belongs to today's world. Carminho, who wrote many of the lyrics and songs and produced the record herself, for the first time, considers it a dialogue between herself and two fado singers who blazed a trail for her: Beatriz da Conceição and Teresa Siqueira (her mother). London Jazz News calls it "a beautifully realized, remarkably varied yet uniformly gorgeous album."
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Devendra Banhart's album Ma bursts with tender, autobiographical vignettes, displaying a shift from the sonic experimentation of his previous albums to an intricate, captivating story-telling and emotional intimacy. The album was produced by his longtime musical compadre Noah Georgeson and includes a background vocal from Cate Le Bon and a duet with Banhart's mentor, muse, and dear friend Vashti Bunyan. This is "sublimely understated, border-blurring folk rock," says the Los Angeles Times. "Banhart's singular world remains as intoxicating as ever," says Q. "It feels as if all of human life is here."
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The triple-LP vinyl edition of Brad Mehldau's Nonesuch Records debut album, Live in Tokyo, first released on the album's 15th anniversary in 2019, was made in partnership with Run Out Groove, pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and comprises the original album's eight tracks plus an additional seven tracks previously available only on the Japanese edition. "Few pianists can match Brad Mehldau when it comes to cross-fertilizing jazz, classical, and rock," said JazzTimes. "The same applies for technique, taste and intellectual curiosity. All of those qualities are on display [here]."
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With a cast of legendary Chicano musicians, Cooder recounts the story of how a Mexican-American community was destroyed to make way for L.A.’s Dodger Stadium. Rolling Stone calls it “a remarkable song cycle … a brilliant and flavorful film-noir history lesson.” The 2019 two-LP vinyl edition was remastered from the original high-resolution source files and pressed on 140-gram vinyl. The set comes in a gatefold tip-on jacket with a twenty-page, full-color booklet.
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Kronos Quartet’s groundbreaking 2002 collaboration with composer Terry Riley, Sun Rings, is available in full for the first time. Riley incorporates into his composition "space sounds" (plasma waves) that NASA had collected from the Voyager probes, as well as a choir that represents, in his words, "the voice of humanity in its struggle to understand the meaning of our place in this unfathomable universe." Musical America calls it "a spaceship that faces ahead into the planets but also looks back toward its starting point on Earth." Grammy Award Nominee: Best Engineered Album, Classical.
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Donnacha Dennehy’s The Hunger explores the emotional, political, and socioeconomic devastation of Ireland’s Great Famine. Performed by Alarm Will Sound, soprano Katherine Manley, and sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, the libretto principally draws from rare, first-hand accounts by Asenath Nicholson, an American humanitarian so moved by the waves of immigrants arriving in New York that she traveled to Ireland to bear witness. It "bears hearing and rehearing," says the Washington Post. "It is powerful, and it makes a statement."
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The Black Keys' ninth studio album, "Let's Rock" is a return to the straightforward rock of the singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney's early days as a band. "When we're together we are The Black Keys, that's where that real magic is," says Auerbach, "and always has been since we were sixteen." "The record is like an homage to electric guitar," says Carney. "We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to."